C U L V E R C I T Y D O W N T O W N S T R E E T S C A P E I M P R O V E M E N T, Culver City, California, 1992-1995 Commissioner: Community Redevelopment Agency, Culver City
Consultant: Andrew Spurlock, Andrew Spurlock/Martin Poirier, Landscape Architects
glass, steel, aluminum, brass, light, motor, censor
The artwork consists of three triangular glass pillars with internal rotating light elements located on the sidewalk at an intersection on Culver Boulevard adjacent to the Culver Theater in Culver City. Each pillar has three different images sandblasted on glass panels: MGM’s world famous Leo the Lion; Salvador Dali’s sketch of giant eyes for the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, Spellbound filmed at Culver Studio; and an image of the spiral tower of Babel, which represents communication and power.
Within each pillar and illuminated at night are rotating and projected images and words based on well-known and more obscure aspects of the history of Culver City. In Japan, lanterns are placed each summer near the house altar to welcome back the spirits of the past. Compositionally like a lantern, Truth or Fiction? is, at its core, an exploration of the interaction of the movie-making history of Culver Studios, and the myths and histories of local indigenous populations.